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XGen here — just wanted to apologize to everyone we've disappointed and to shed some light on this. We've had a version of Machinarium running on the Wii (using some custom Flash-based technology to help get it there) for over a year now. By making a lot of sacrifices on the amazing soundtrack, and fantastic graphics, we were finally able to squeeze the game into the necessary distribution footprint (from over 300 MB on other platforms).

Since then, we (and the brilliant guys at Amanita) had been doing a lot of work to try to improve the quality and experience on the Wii. But in the end we collectively made the tough decision that, even after all this, the quality just couldn't do the game justice when compared to other platforms.

So again I apologize that we couldn't make this happen, but we really encourage everyone to check out this fantastic game on another platform. Cheers everyone!

Thanks so much to everyone who's played or is still playing Defend Your Castle! We owe it all to you!

Also, Defend Your Castle was released on iPhone & iPod Touch about a month ago so be sure to check that out if it interests you! It's currently on-sale for 50%-off at only 99 cents! We've made some nice additions to the game there, so even if you're well-versed in the WiiWare version, you'll find some pleasant surprises! /shameless_plug

The amount of shovelware on a service actually doesn't bother us as much as seeing genuinely good games fail (because as you said, as long as people are buying it nothing will change). The problem for us is more when great games just don't sell. The masses can buy as much shovelware as they can afford, as long as good developers are rewarded for their hard work and are financially able to keep releasing new titles.

It's a bit of a tricky problem because having an approval process where a single group has "veto" power could limit creativity and innovation even more than the existing threshold systems. It's possible that a game which had been worked on for over a year could be disapproved just because whomever was doing the review didn't see the enormous market waiting for that particular game.

I personally think that the problems lie more in the lack of systems to consistently allow the quality content to rise to the top. For example, if there were a review system built into the Shop channel, I would think that games like Toki Tori and Lit would stand out clearly from the masses, and the resulting boost in sales would render any threshold amounts a non-issue.

One more personal opinion is that game development is expensive, even on WiiWare. Even if a developer were paid for sales below any threshold, it probably isn't enough to offset a meaningful portion of the development costs.

Speaking from the perspective of another developer, we at XGen see these thresholds essentially as protection for Nintendo against having their time and money consumed by titles that simply don't perform well on their service. There's a cost associated with getting a game through their testing processes and launched, and I don't think that it's a trivial one. They need safeguards like this in order to prevent from being burned by large numbers of titles that don't generate any sales.

That said, we hate to see great games like Toki Tori and others perform poorly, but I would think that they've at least met the minimum thresholds to see something back on their investment.

On only a slight tangent, hear hear to some of what has been said regarding Metacritic (etc.) scores. We're all gamers at XGen and we use these services to help decide what's worth looking at, but Defend Your Castle has a pretty poor score considering how many people love this game. I completely agree that in many cases the press (WiiWare-World / Nintendolife excluded, we love you guys ) represents the "hardest of the hardcode" and is simply out of touch with what even the average gamer likes to play.

Glad to hear that many of you are looking forward to the release next week - we're pretty pumped to finally be able to deliver the game to all of you in Europe & Australia, and we hope you enjoy it.

We really made an effort to deliver a lot of game for 500 points, and to go significantly above and beyond what we did with Defend Your Castle on the web those many years ago.

To answer your question above regarding what's changed, most of this has already been mentioned, but:

4-player jump-in co-op - This is by far the most significant enhancement, and really takes the game to the next level. Not only are you co-operatively advancing through levels with your friends, but you can also compete with them each round in heated battles for kingship.

(We're particularly proud of the fact that you could be in the middle of a single-player game, and have your friends jump in or out at any time without interrupting gameplay. The game automagically dials the difficulty up or down as necessary.)

Completely new visiuals - Love it or hate it, the game features a completely new & unique art style which some find very charming. We've also added some simple physics, particle effects, season changes, weather effects, spell effects etc. which don't exist in the web-based version.

Re-tooled Gameplay & Difficulty curve - We took all the feedback we'd received regarding the web-based version of Defend Your Castle over the years and applied it to everything from the # of invaders on-screen at once, to the rate & speed at which they approach, as well as completely re-working the balance between archers, masons, mages, demolitions units and the upgrades. The game really plays better than ever.

As far as difficulty modes, the game features "Normal" (which gets quite challenging as you level-up), as well as "Heroic". We threw in Chuck Norris difficulty just for Chuck.

Not to mention, using the Wii Remote and playing from your couch in full 480p is really the ultimate way to enjoy DyC.

Sorry that it's taken so long to get the game ready for you fans in Europe. There is a fair bit of work involved in securing all the software ratings, localization, etc. but thanks to all for being patient.

It may not be obvious, but you can actually click the Catapult's projectiles in the air to detonate them before they hit your castle.

What the team here likes to do is start playing in lolcats-mode and just let the catapults pile up, then compete to see who can snipe the most projectiles out of the air before the castle gets destroyed. It's surprisingly fun after a long day of coding.

On a side note, has anyone made it very far on Chuck Norris difficulty? I think the record here is level 20-ish, after which it becomes crazy difficult to keep up with grabbing the little guys.

There are actually unlimited levels, so the game ends only when you want it to. The real question is, how high can you get?

That said, there are still a few surprises in store for players who get a little further along in the game, as well as some cool easter eggs scattered around. We tried to cram in as much as we possibly could for five bucks.

Awesome to hear how much you're enjoying the game. Unfortunately, past 100 mages all you'll get is a shorter cooldown on your spells (which, mind you should prove very useful in late-game). Also, a shorter cooldown on the instant-conversion spell is always useful as you get converts faster and faster.

As you probably guessed, I can't speak to what we're working on next, but I can assure you that fans will not be disappointed.

Just wanted to drop in and say thanks to everyone who's purchased Defend your Castle thus far! Looks like we're currently sitting at the #3 most popular title -- we couldn't have done it without you, and we hope you're all having a blast with the game.